So, recently the podcast went live on Facebook (link) and for me, it was a highly rewarding experience. Amidst all of this self-isolation, home quarantine, COVID-19, hysteria, realness, or whatever you want to call it, I had an idea to involve the professionals. Where to find these professionals? I don’t know but, I do know that if I do it right, they will find me. So, I headed to Facebook and the Moscow Expats Facebook page. I realized that if I came out saying that the podcast was looking for guests to appear on the show, I might not get much response, but if I said that I was personally looking for a therapist, there would surely be some good people out there, wanting to help.
Now that I had spoken with all the guests, it was time to start getting the advertising pieces together. I needed pics from each of the guests, my wife, the resident graphic designer, put together some pieces for me to use for FB ads and disseminate on various FB groups.
After I had 4 interested parties, I needed to set up calls with each of them so I could get a feel for their character, ask them loads of questions and get their feedback, you know, as professionals telling me what questions were actually good and which ones weren’t. Now, I should back up here and give you a better idea of what kind of timeframe we were dealing with here. I had this idea exactly one week before we went live. All of these talks and things to come (keep reading) happened in that time frame.
Once that was done, we were not out of the woods yet. Another hurdle to overcome was how were we going to stream multiple guests on Facebook at the same time: Que “Google Search”! This is what I like to call “just in time learning”. I don’t waste unnecessary time learning stuff I won’t use. When I need it, I’ll learn it. I found a piece of software that seemed to fit my needs…but I found out quickly that they only accept payment through paypal and let me tell you what a pain that was. I don’t live in the states and my credit card wasn’t working anyway (that’s another story)! It was Friday night (about 20 hours till ‘showtime’) and I was starting to feel the pressure.
Put It All Together
I finally found a great piece of software (10pm on Friday night). Little did I know then, but one of my online role models, Pat Flynn, also uses the very same software. Anyway, this software seemed to solve all the problems that I currently had.
Time for sleep….zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz
Saturday morning was a great de-stressor before the live show. A nice walk with my wife and the dogs, a great breakfast and some relax time just hanging around the apartment drinking coffee and talking.
Around 1:00pm I started getting mentally prepared and when we returned from our early afternoon walk, around 2:45pm, we really needed to get things rolling.
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
Milton Berle
3:30pm – Pre-call with me and the guests
3:40pm – No one hears me
3:41pm – Stephen is getting worried
3:45pm – Discovered the mic wasn’t plugged in
3:55pm – All guests are present and electronics are working
4:10pm – We finish going over the talking points, Q’s and format
4:10-4:25 – Bathroom, Make-Up and Prepare 2 Glasses of Water
4:28pm – Start
In the end, we had a 1hr+ call with three highly qualified, English-speaking (Russian native), female therapists. We discussed many topics surrounding, stress, anxiety, depression, job loss, family situations, loneliness, and other topics.
I would have enjoyed a bigger turnout for the live event, getting more people to join in on the call, asking questions and getting answers. The most important thing is that we did it, the ladies enjoyed it, the guests that were present really enjoyed it and the waves that will ripple out from what we did, will eventually prove to be worth it.
This is the show. We hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!